Feb. 16, 2013

Richard A. Foster is seen in this undated photo released by Vermont State Police. / AP file

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Associated Press

MONTPELIER — A former Vermont teacher serving a 25-year-sentence in federal prison after pleading guilty to child-pornography charges involving some of his Bradford students has died in prison.

The U.S. Bureau of Prisons says Richard Foster, 57, died Feb. 9 at the Federal Correctional Institution in Petersburg, Va.

U.S. Bureau of Prisons spokesman Chris Burke said he did not know the cause of Foster’s death.

Foster, who had taught in Orange County schools for two decades before his September 2007 arrest, was charged with a variety of offenses after police found sexually explicit photos Foster sent by cellphone to a former student who had moved to Florida. Investigators subsequently discovered additional sexually explicit images involving another sixth-grade student.

He initially was charged with a variety of state offenses. About a year after his arrest, Foster pleaded guilty to two federal child pornography charges. He was sentenced to 25 years in prison.

“It’s an end to a sad chapter in Bradford’s history,” Mark Johnson, the chairman of local School Board when Foster was charged, told the Caledonian Record.

Even though it has been more than five years since Foster was arrested, Bradford residents are still coming to terms with the notion that something so horrible could happen to two children in their small town, Johnson said.

“I don’t know that you heal. You carry on,” Johnson said. “You care for the victims, and I think the town has supported those folks.”